Scarred (9 page)

“Actually,” Cooper said, stepping towards us, “why don't you two just go. I'll go down and let Peyta know you'll be coming in later.”

He stood just behind Matty so his expression could only be seen by me. It was one I so rarely saw:
careful
, it read,
do as I say.
Completely confused, but not wanting to alarm Matty, I agreed and thanked him for his trouble. And with that, we were on our way.

“You wanna go grab something to eat first?” Matty asked as we spilled out onto the sidewalk. “I'm starving.”

“I actually just scarfed something down now, but I'll get some tea while you get lunch,” I said, looking around to decide which direction would be best to head in. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Whatever,” he said, with a growing grin. “We
are
still talking about food right?”

“Matty!” I yelled and hit him playfully in the arm. “You're such a typical boy. Everything is innuendo with you guys.”

“So I'm a boy, huh? That's not what the last one said.”

“Ew, I
so
don't need to know that,” I said, heading off towards the waterfront. “Do me a favor? Whatever you've been up to these past months that doesn't directly affect me, keep to yourself, please.”

“Yes ma'am,” he said with an obliging nod. “So where are you taking me to
eat?”
he asked with particular emphasis on the last word.

“There are a lot of places on the water. You can pick what you want. I don't care either way,” I said, suddenly very nervous, “but we can't talk about certain things there, okay? We'll have to go somewhere private for that.”

“I can handle private,” he smirked, lifting an eyebrow for effect.

“Seriously, Matty. Enough with the double talk.”

He laughed in response, making me wonder if all the men in my life relished the fact that they could so easily get under my skin. If so, it was clearly the only thing they had in common.

“Alright, alright,” he said, putting his hands up in surrender. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman from now on...promise.”

I frowned at him, concerned that he too was acting strangely. Maybe my boys had more in common than I thought.

He settled on a place I hadn't been to before—a little mom and pop pizzeria with an outside seating area. The wind had bite to it that day, so we were the only ones who decided to brave it. I unhooked the scarf from around my neck and draped it over my shoulders. I'd forgotten to grab a jacket on my way out the door, not having planned on sipping my tea outside, but the privacy was nice, so I suffered silently and endured it.

“Are you cold?” he asked, watching my white fingers clutch the steaming mug in front of me.

“I'll be fine,” I replied. “Are you really going to eat two whole pizzas? You do remember me saying that I just ate, right?”

“Yes, I remember,” he laughed as he pulled up his shirt to expose his eight pack. “What can I say? I have a wicked metabolism.”

“I guess so,” I said, trying to look away and failing miserably. There was barely an ounce of fat on him. His dance schedule out west had to have been grueling at best to have chiseled him that much.

“So how have you been?” he asked, shuffling a pepper shaker across the table between his hands.

“Good. You?”

“Good.”

We were off to a blazing start.

“Where exactly have you been, Matty? I was worried. You wouldn't answer my calls or texts, and—”

“I had to get away for a bit,” he said, voice low and distant. “Sort some things out.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, knowing damn well why he'd had to do that. I fiddled with my mug, twirling it round and round in my hands.

“I'm not mad at you, Ruby. Not anymore, but...that was a lot to take in, ya know? I had to get away to clear my head for a bit.”

“I'm so sorry,” I whispered, my head low. I couldn't bring myself to face him.

“Once I left town, I had some time to process things a bit. Get some perspective,” he said softly. “I know that you were protecting me that night. Is it weird that part of what made me mad was my pride? That
I
wanted to be the one to protect
you
...not that you seemed to need it.”

The waiter came and placed two medium pies down in front of us, recruiting a nearby table to house one of them. It was a ridiculous amount of food, but smelled amazing. I couldn't resist having one piece.

“Atta girl,” Matty said, sounding every bit the little league coach he'd likely be one day. “Get right in there. You look thin―tired. Are you eating enough?”

“Why are you the second person to comment on that today? Do I look like a walking eating disorder or something?” I asked, grabbing a second piece of pizza to curb the conversation. In response, he smiled like his mother. Carmen liked to stuff you so full of food that she had to roll you out of the dining room afterward. She was the reason elastic waistbands were invented—“buffet” pants, as Matty liked to call them.

“Moving right along then,” he said, surrendering for the second time that day. “Ma said you stopped by a couple of times. She said she didn't tell you where I was.”

“She
knew
?” I asked, dumbfounded. She'd told me she didn't know what was going on with him at the time.

He smiled, sheepishly.

“I told her I didn't want to see you when I left. I didn't tell her why, but I'm pretty sure she thinks you broke her little boy's heart. Carmen may really like you, but no mother is going to stand for that.”

“So where exactly did you go?”

“I went out to the west coast. I have a buddy out there—does some commercial fishing. He said he needed somebody for the summer, so I went.”

“In L.A.?” I asked, trying to remember if that was on the ocean or not.

“No, down the coast a little further, but I went up there and took some classes. I even did a couple of auditions, just for kicks.”

“Did you get any gigs?” I asked, leaning forward with excitement. Matty didn't understand how breathtaking he was on stage. I hoped someone out west noticed him.

“Almost. I just missed making the final cut for Lady Gaga's next tour,” he said, taking a piece of pizza off the metal pan and rolling it up. “They said I was too tall. They've got short girls out there in L.A.. Maybe I would have made it if you tried out with me.”

“That's too bad, Matty. It sounds like it would have been an amazing opportunity,” I said, before giggling to myself. “Although, she
does
make the boys wear some freaky shit.”

“Yeah,” he said with a mouth full of pie, “I noticed that after the fact. I did breathe a little sigh of relief. My dad wouldn't have done too well with that, ya know?” I tried to picture Dom watching his son dance in assless chaps with women in bondage gear draped around him, but aborted that mission before anything solidified. “So, now that my buddy doesn't need me anymore, I decided to come back,” he said, looking at me intently. “Besides...I missed some things while I was gone.”

“Things?” I asked, squirming under the intensity of his gaze.

“More like
people
.”

A subject change was in order.

“So, are you back to dance for good now?” I asked weakly, hoping to deflect the conversation.

“Yep. I called Pam last week. She said I was good to go,” he replied, turning his attention back to his meal. “She said she wasn't sure what to do with you anymore. None of the guys worked well with you.”

That was an understatement. Pam had relegated me to group numbers only, with a very occasional solo piece. Aesthetically, I just didn't match up well with the other guys, and they weren't strong enough to lift the extra pounds that came with my taller frame. Matty always could.

“Yeah, let's just say it's been a bit boring for me since you left.” I gave him a playful wink before taking another bite.

We bantered back and forth for a while, falling back into our old rhythm. Though it was still awkward knowing we had issues to address, it was comforting to regain something that I'd missed so deeply. Matty brought a sense of normalcy to my life that I lacked, and, unlike Alan and Kristy, he knew what I was yet still wanted to be part of the madness. I didn't want to lose him.

I
couldn't
lose him.

Three hours, two pizzas, four cups of tea, and a much needed bathroom break later, we headed on our way to stroll through town. It was Saturday afternoon, but the streets were remarkably empty, the weather having taken a turn for the worse. The sky was dark and foreboding, and it started to give a preview of what was inevitably to come throughout the rest of the day. Seeing the writing on the wall, I ducked into a local pharmacy and bought an umbrella big enough for two.

We made our way down to the harbor, walking to the end of one of the docks. Just before we got ourselves situated, it started to really rain. It was precisely what we needed. There wasn't a soul around, and the declining weather would only further ensure that. Matty opened the umbrella above us to ward off the pelting precipitation, and I shimmied closer to him for warmth.

“You're freezing,” he said with a frown. He unzipped his hoodie, and, without asking if I wanted it, draped it around my shoulders. The blast of heat I absorbed from it was intense, almost uncomfortable against my frigid skin. I must have gotten colder than I'd thought.

“Better?”

“It's great, thanks,” I replied. “But you're going to get cold now.”

He shrugged ambivalently.

“I don't really feel it that much.”

“Liar,” I retorted. “You’re either trying to play hero, or you're too busy trying to digest all that pizza you just ate to feel anything other than indigestion.”

Instead of laughing, he regarded me curiously.

“You must burn through a lot of calories, being...you know...given your situation,” he said cautiously.

“Yes,” I sighed, knowing we were going to have the conversation whether I liked it or not. “I suppose I do, though it's a bit different for me.
I'm
a bit different in general—by werewolf standards, that is.”

“And that really is what you are?” he asked for clarification. I imagined the events that occurred that night had led him to question a lot of things, even things that I'd admitted to already.

“Yes.”

“Sean and Cooper too, right?” he asked with slight distaste.

“Yes,” I replied, feeling it best to leave it at that.

“How long have you been this way?”

“Almost two years now, but for about nine months of that I had no idea that's what I was. I kept having blackouts...I didn't know that I was
Changing
.”

“So how did you figure it out?” he asked, trying to intercept my gaze.

“It's a long story,” I sighed, not really wanting to relive anything to do with Eric. “Another werewolf recognized what I was. He told me, and when I didn't believe him, he Changed in front of me to drive the reality home.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, lowering his face into my view.

“I mean he turned into a wolf in front of me.”

“You can really do that?” he asked, sounding a bit like a child asking his favorite superhero about his powers.

“Yes,” I laughed, the sound cutting through the rhythm of the rain around us with one loud scoff. “But please don't glorify it. It's not cool, or awesome. It's a curse.”

“But I don't understand how you came to be like this?” he asked, taking my hand in his. The warmth it held felt amazing, so I placed my other in his palm too.

“Mine is genetic, but there are others out there, Cooper for example, who were infected.”

“Infected?”

“Bitten, scratched...I don't really know how it works. I'm assuming some bodily fluid is involved, but I haven't worked out the logistics. I was planning on asking Coop about it at some point.”

“Are there a lot of you?”

“No clue,” I said, my minding wandering to the size of the pack in Utah. It was formidable to say the least, but also no longer in existence.

“Do you Change with the full moon?”

“Nope.”
You have sex on it.
“I think that's just in movies.”

He ran his hand through his hair a few times before letting out the breath he was holding.

“I'm not going to lie, Ruby. You're not the wealth of information I was hoping for,” he said with a grin.

“I'm kind of a flunky wolf. Things have gone a bit differently for me than they do for most. I missed out on Lycanthropy 101.”

“So no history?” he mocked. “Fine. But you
can
tell me about what happened that night in the alley. That much I know.”

I closed my eyes. It was the moment I'd dreaded most of all. I didn't like thinking about the Rev, or what he'd done―nearly done―to those I loved. He'd let me know that night that he could get to anyone at any time, and I could do nothing about it.

“That night...the man in the alley—the one who attacked us...,” I said slowly, choosing my words carefully. “He's a werewolf. A rogue one. He's extremely dangerous and he's after Peyta. Scarlet too.”